Review of one of the oldest Restaurants in Bandra – National Restaurant

It comes to my mind quite often, What is Bandra’s food heritage, we have all these swanky neo-food restaurants serving from Korean, Japanese food to woks and bao’s. There is also a place which serves mostly Salads, but what is Bandra’s food heritage? What kind of restaurants did people visit 30 to 40 years back?

In my quest to discover Bandra’s food culture, I ventured to National Restaurant, established in 1959, and the biggest USP is that the place cooks all its food in coal.

It is believed that Dharmendra and Shatrughan Sinha have patronised the place in the good old days.

The place looks very down-market from the outside, but once you are inside, the place though has furniture from the early 1970’s is well kept and almost clean.

There are two sections; I preferred to sit in the inside section as I wanted to eavesdrop on what going in the kitchen and how disciplined or hygienic the place is. There are some things I would have preferred the waiter not to touch by hand, like the papad he served with me was just carried from the stove to my plate by hand, but this must be a standard practise.

The cuisine is true blue Punjabi, and the food quantity is ideal as they have a half plate system so, one is unlikely to waste food if dining alone, this is a big plus for me. As I hate the large quantities serves in places like Khane Khas, as I am not able to order a variety of dishes, as I am mostly dining alone.

I preferred to stick to Vegetarian, for some strange reason, I thought this place would have better vegetarian food. My rajma masala was earthy, mellow and there was no trace of oil. One of the best I have had. Of course, if you prefer your Rajma chawal to be fiery this is not the place.

Some other dishes I have been recommended are the Paneer Bhurjee, Rajma mixed with Kali or Sukhi Dal, makke ki roti and sarso ka saag.

I love the atte ke rotis with a tiny dollop of Amul butter and their simple chicken preparations – moghlai or curry httpss://t.co/GKUNUoVVCm

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